Bottle-handling mechanism.



J. V. IRENIUS & G. B. WEAVER.

BOTTLE HANDLING MECHANISM. APPLICATION FILED AUG. 28, 1912.

1,079,295. Patented Nov. 18,1913.

6 SHEETS-SHEET l.

76 721 W /Zd J. v. IRENIUS & 0. B. WEAVER.

BOTTLE HANDLING MECHANISM. APPLICATION FILED AUG. 28, 1912.

Patented Nov. 18,1913.

6 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

qwitwaooer J. V, IRENIUS G. B. WEAVER.

BOTTLE HANDLING MECHANISM. APPLICATION FILED AUG. 28, 1912.

Patented N0v .1'8,1913.

6 SHEETSSHEET 3.

a moeywow imb 120520 M76",

J. V. IRENIUS 6; G. B. WEAVER.

' BOTTLE HANDLING MECHANISM.-

APPLIOATIONIILED AUG. 28, 1912.

6 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

Patented Nov. 18

J. v. IRENIUS & 0. B. WEAVER.

BOTTLE HANDLING MECHANISM. APPLICATION FILED AUG. 28, 19 12.

1 079 295 Patented Nov. 18, 1913.

1/7 [6 7/0 I 5259640 i6 r 742/ 4.? 9b; .5 %Zfi@ I? v J'Z 7 v i I ,I

UNITED STATES PATEN are JOSEPH V. IRENIUS AND CLAYTON B. WEAVER, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

BOTTLE-HANDLING MECHANISM.

To all tohom 2'75 may concern to apparatus for feeding bottles to a bottling appliance, such as a bottle sealing or capping machine, and particularly adapted to co-act therewith.

It has for one of its objects the-provision of improved means for continuously delivering bottles, for example, to points'in a suitable mechanism where said bottles may be capped, and thereafter delivering the bottles or receptacles so capped or sealed toconvenicnt points at which they may be collected. In our pending application No. 623,794, filed April 27, 1911, we have described a mechanism of this general type; and while generally satisfactory, the therein described apparatus has been found in practice to give rise to the occasional breakage of bottles. The present machine has hence been developed as the result of an extended series of experimentslooking to the production of a mechanism of this description which shall meet all of the numerous requirements of the trade. The conditionsunder which an auton'iatically fed capping machine must operate are onerous and it is prceminently necessary that any material breakage' of the bottles must be avoided.

The shifting and. feeding mechanism herein described is especially applicable to capping machines having a plurality of preferably alined plungers and a corresponding number of capping heads, the heads being normally stationary; and we regard the present invention in certain of its aspects as involving a combination of the novel feeding elements employed and a capping machine proper of the fixed head, or plunger, type.

The foregoingand other objects of our invention will be hereinafter referred to and the novel elements and combinations of elements whereby the same maybe attained will be more particularly set forth in the claims appended hereto.

In the drawings which Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed August 28, 1912.

II VII of Fig. 5.

form part hereofzund inwhioh like reference characters desigg Patented Nov. 18,1 913.

Serial No. 717,423.

nate like parts throughout the several views, we have exemplified a preferred construction, but we are aware that various changes and modifications may be made herein within thepurview of our invention and hence desire to be limited only by the scope of the said claims.

Referring to the drawings: Figure 1 is afront elevation of a preferred construction of bottle capping machine and automatic feed therefor; a portion of the gnidesand certain other parts being broken away for purposes of illustration. Fig. 2 is the right side elevation of said mechanism, again, with certain of the parts broken away. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section taken substantially on the line III-III of Fig. 1. tail of a fragment of the guides and certain of the co-acting parts shown in Fig. 3, drawn to an enlarged scale. Fig. 5 is a fragmentary section drawn to a still larger scale, the section being taken on line V-V of Fig. 4.

Fig. (i is a somewhat fragmentary detail sec tion taken on line VIVI of Fig. 2. Fig. 7 is a detail section of a portion of the automatic stop, said section being taken on line Fig. 8 is a horizontal section taken on line VHF-VIII of Fig. 7. Fig. 9 is a detail of the lower portion of one of the capping heads. Fig. 10 is a bottom view of said head. i

Referring to Fig. 1, the capping machine therein shown comprises side frames 1 connected by a cross-head 2 and tie-rods 3; the cross-head carrying the capping heads, broadly designated 4, the latter being provided with feed hoppers 5 for th a bottle caps,

-which is known to the trade as a Quad capping machine. The front of the table indicated at the left hand side of Fig. 2 is recessed for the reception of a belt 11 which is disposed around rollers 12 and 13, as best shown iii-Fig. 2. Boilers '12 and 13 are respectively; ounted upon shafts 14 and 15' aad'tho 14, while maintained in pstral- Fig. 4 is a delelism with shaft 15, is provided with means for adjusting the distance there-between, whereby the belt 11 may be maintained under proper tension. Referring more particularly to Fig. 3, it will he observed that the siindle 16, provided at lthe respective ends thereof with right and left hand threads, extends through the brackets 17, one of which is disposed upon either side of the front edge of the table. Journals 18 for the shaft 14 are sli dably mounted in these brackets; the inner side of each of these journals being beveled to adapt it for engagement with the corresponding face of a wedge block 19. These blocks are threaded on to the respective ends of the spindle 36 and the latter is provided with a handle 20 having a ratchet connection 21 with said spindle, said connection being merely diagrammatically indicated since it maybe of any well known type. The mode of tightening the belt 11 will be at once apparent since it is obvious that by merely oscillating 'the handle 20, spindle 16 may be rotated and will thereby advance the wedge blocks inwardly toward each other pushing the journals 18 out wardly and thereby increasing the tension in the belt.

Two casings are carried upon the front end of the table and the inner face 23 of each of these serves as one of the guides for the bottles 24 which are delivered over the table. A guide-way 25 projects forwardly from these casings and serves to direct the incoming bottles there-l'ietwec-n, the bottles being delivered to said guide way through a channel 26, or by any other desired medium of conveyance. It. will be observed that the channel 26 is preferably adapted to receive the bottles in an upright position in such manner as to quite closely aline the same; while the recess in the guide-way 25 is of somewhat greater width than the diameter of the bottle, as a result of which the bottles are caused to arrange I themselves in staggered relationship as they emerge from the channel 26, since the speed of the belt is preferably slightly less than the speed of the bottles advancing through channel 26. This feature of construction is of considerable importance since it co-acts with the prow or stem 27, the edge of which is preferably directly in the extended median line of the channel-way, to effect a proper distribution of the bottles. The latter are pushed through the channel 26 and guide-way 25 in any suitable manner, as for example, when they are delivered successively into the channel from the filler. After they have entered between the casings 22 a short distance, however, their bottoms are engaged by the belt 11 which thereafter positively advances them toward the plungers 10 of the eapping mechanism.

Yielding guides 28, preferably of arcuatc formation, project outwardly from the respective casings 22 into the path of the advancing bottles whereby to insure their proper disposition upon the belt at the time that they encounter the sides of the stem 27. These yielding guides may be pivoted as at 29 and are .pressed laterally toward the bottles by means of coiled springs 30, the guide elements 28 being provided at their free extremities with suitable protuberances or stops 31 adapted for engagement with parts of the respective casings 22 whereby to limit the lateral movement of said elements. As the belt 11 advances the bottles toward the stem, by reason of the staggered disposition of said bottles they will be al-' ternately delivered, first to one arm of the Y-shaped channel-way formed by the casings and stein 27, and then to the other arm of.

the same... 'lheyielding guides 28 insure the prompt engagement of each bottle with the apportioned sideof the stem, and the latter, being angularly disposed withrespect to the line of travel of thebclt, shifts the bottles across the belt outwardly toward the adjacent edge thereof. The stem further aiiords a certain. support for the bottles while being so shifted; substantially obviating any likelihood of their becoming upset. The walls of the so formed channel ways for the bottles preferably taper toward each other as the plungers are approached so that when a bottle reaches the innerextremity of one of these channels it will be substantially supported upon opposite sides thereof in the event of its tending to upset.

reciprocally mounted finger 32 is periodically interposed in each of the paths of the advancing bottles, said fingers respectively being carried upon extensions 23;? which project upwardly from slides 34; one of said slides being mounted in suitable ways 35, secured to the table beneath a casing 22, upon either side of said table. The slides 34 are rcciprocated by means of the levers 36. one of which is pivotally mounted upon either side of the machine, said levers being pivoted upon brackets 37 clamped upon the front. tie-rod The upper cxtremity of each of these levers is connected by means of a pin 38 with a depending extension 39 of the corres 'ionding slide 34 said extension being slotted as at 4-0 to allow for the slight upward movement of the lever with respect to the slide. These levers are preferably connected together by a rod 41, as best shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3. Collars 42 mounted upon the rod 4-1 ali'ord means for connecting links 43 thereto. The inner extremity of each of these links is connected to a wrist pin 44 of a. crank arm 45. Two of these arms are provided, each secured in a suitable manner to the hub of a pinion 46 which in turn is carried upon thercduced lower extremity of a holl w spindle-4L7. In the present instance sleeves 48 have been used as the means for securing these crank arms to the hubs of the pinions corrcspondii'ig thereto, while cross pins 49 serve as the means for keying said pinions to their spindles 47, as shown in Fig. 5. These spindles are journaled in cylindrical extensions 50 which project downwardly from the underside of the plate 9; and each pinion 46 is driven by a corresponding gear 51 mounted upon a stud 52'carried in an arm 53 which projects laterally from the corresponding cylindrical extension. Gears 51 have an alternating rotarymotion imparted thereto by means of a reciprocating rack 54:,1'1'l0tl1'1t8d upon a square bar 55 which extends through correspondingly apertured brackets 56 which depend from the underside of the table. Rod is suitably connected to a link 57, as by means of an attachment 58 carrying a stud 59; the link 57 in turn being actuated by means of a crankedshaft 6O journaled in brackets (51, 62, carried respectively by the table and upon one of the side frames 1, as shown in Fig. 8. ltotary motion is imparted to the shaft 60 by suitable gearing 63 receiving power from a side shaft 64 of the capping machine; This shaft, it may be here stated, is driven by means of beveled gears 65, from the main cam shaft 66 of said machine which carries the cams which operate the plunger-sh These plungers are lifted through the instrumentality of cams 67 which engage rollers 68, each mounted in a forked guide bracket broadly designated 69,

which depends from a plunger, each plunger,

being provided with one of these brackets. We particularly desire to call attention to the fact that each guide bracket 69 is provided with a cap 70 having a massive lateral extension 71 which is adapted for engagement with a down-thrusting cam 72. In our previous construction we depended upon gravity to force the plungers downwardly as the cams were swung around there-be neath but in practice we have found that owing to the conditions under which the machine must be operated, there is at times a tendency for these plungers to stick in their guide-ways so that they do not invariably descend. This is apt to result in a breal'rage of bottles since the latter are pushed positively onto the tables of the plungers in the manner hereinafter described. To effect, therefore, uninterrupted action of the mech anism we have provided these auxiliary cams 72 which insure that any given plunger shall be in its lowermost position when a bottle is moved there-toward by the quadrants presently to be described' The fingers 32, operated by the slides 34, are pivotally connected to the extensions 33 of said slides as at 73, and'are normally pressed out substantially at right angles to springs'74, disposed around their pivoting pins. {The fingers 82 are not free to swingbackwardly with respect to their slides but may he swung or turned forwardly with respect thereto by the more pressure of a bottle there-against. Hence they effectually serve to push the bottles as they reach the end of the respective tapered channel ways out into the path of the oscillating quadrants 75, while upon a backward stroke of the slide 34, 2'. 6., toward the front of the table the finger 32 carried thereby yields upon encountering the next bottle behind in the channel way and swings therepast, as soon as it is free to do so, preparatory to urging this bottle into' the path of the quadrant upon the return stroke of the slide. A small gate or stop' 7 6 is pivoted. upon each side of the stem 27 adjacentthe portion 77 thereof which is substantially in parallelism with the adjacent slide; and such gate is normally held at right angles to said portion 77 against a suitable stop by the action of a coil spring 78 disposed around the pivot pin 7 9 of said gate. While the gate is held against movement toward the front of the machine when thus disposed at right angles to the portion 77 of the stem, it is free to swing in the direction of the plunger when a bottle ispressed firmly thereagainst by the adjacent finger The strength ofthe spring 78 is such as to enable the gate 76 to hold a bottle against the advancing action of the belt or apron 11 until said bottle is thus positively shifted by said finger 32.

The quadrants 7 5 above referred to are pivotally mounted upon the reduced upper extremity 80 of the spindles 47 above referred to. These spindles extending in subsiantia-l parallelism with the axes of the plungcrs and being disposed in a plane intermediate the axes of a pair of said plungcrs, the spindle axes however being nearer the front of the machine thanthe plunger axes, as shown in Fig. 3. By reason of this construction when a quadrant is oscillated in one direction and then in the other it is adapted to engage a bottle delivered into its path in the manner above described, rccciving said bottle in one of the arcua-tely recess-ed sides 81 of the quadrantand conveying said bottle through substantially the are of a circle, around to the table of a plungcr. ft stud 82 projects upwardly from the surface of this table; said stud being preferably upon the side of said table nearest the other plunger of a given pair of the same. This stud carries two spring pressed finger pieces one of which, designated 83, is knuckled or bent as shown, While the other, 84, is substantially straight. The details of these fingers are best shown in Fig. 5 wherein the spring whichtends to close them togther to a determined angle, has been designated 85. It will be observed that the in ger piece 8% is bifurcated while that desig nated 83 is substantially solid and is made narrower to be received freely between the upper and lower wings of the quadrant 75. The bifurcation of the piece 84- bet-t-er adapts it to co-act with the piece 83; the bottle being engaged at three points.

As the quadrant swings a bottle on to the table of a plunger the bottle encounters the bent finger piece 83 which is so formed as to be readily pushed out of ,the way of the advancing bottle, but which thereafter presses again t said bottle" substantially at the knuckled portion of said piece,the. ')ie ees 83 and S l co-acti'ng top'ush the bottletoward a flat link 85, o -lfifot' the functions of which is to aid inceiit the bottle accurately upon :r-corresponding plunger. This link also has certain other functions which will now be discussed. The rear extren'iity of each link 85 pivotally connected, as at 86, to a second link 97, the rear end of which in turn is pivotally connected to the upper extremity of a lever 88 which projects up through a slot 88' in the table. There are two of these levers. one upon either side of the machine. and their respective lower extremities: are secured in bearing members 80 which are loosely mounted upon a shaft 00 which extends across the rear side of the machine and is journaled in brackets 91, carried by the side frames 1. Shaft 90 is driven by means of a pinion 92, secured thereupon, which is in mesh with a gear 93. The latter is secured upon the shaft 00 which carries the cams (i7 and 72.

Above and smnewhat to the rear of the shaft 90 is a shaft 95 journaled in brackets 96, as shown in Fig. This shaft carries a gear 97 which is in mesh with a pinion 98 mounted upon the shaft 90 (Fig. 2). Shaft 95 is thereby driven from shaft 90 by a gearing which is so proportioned as to effect one revolution thereof for each revolution of shaft 66. Upon the shaft 95 are disposed two cams 99 provided with cam grooves in the sides thereof adapted for the reception of rollers 100. These latter are mounted on pins 101 upon the respective levers 88. Owing to the arrangement of gearing above described the levers 88 will be oscillated back and forth once for every revolution of the. main cam shaft 00, and will hence push the links 87 and S5 alternately first toward the front of the'machine and then toward the rear. ries a pushing finger 102 which is similar in its action to the finger 32 previously described; being incapable 'of swinging toward the front of the machine beyond the position in which each of said fingers is shown in Fig. 4 by reason of its tail-piece coming against a shoulder on the fink, but

The link 87 car-.

being adapted to readily yield in the opposite direction upon ent'to ntering a. bottle. Light: coiled springs 10:, serve to normally hold these fingers 102 substantially at right angles to the links 87 to which they are pivoted.

The forw rd extremity of each flat or straight link 85, which it may be here stated is so termed owing to the fact that the side thereof which engages the bottle is preferably made substantially flat, rides in a groove 104 provided in a guide block 105. It will be observed, too, that the underside of the. forward extremity of each link 87 is provided with a projection 106 which is adapted to ride upon the surface of the table of a plunger, as shown in Fig. 2; and in operation some portion of the linkage colliprising the elements 85 and 87 will at all times be above a given plunger.

It is desirable to so dispose the cams 99 as to have a finger 102 move past a bottle while the latter is virtually clamped by the plunger against the capping head, so that the bottle may not be disturbed by the progress of this spring pressed finger thereover; and further to expedite the subsequent removal of the bottle from said plunger by having the corresponding finger 102 in position to promptly shift said bottle. ott' from the plunger substantially immediately after the latter has descended to its lower level. It will be understood, of course, that the respective linkages in question, for a given pair of plungers. are actuated alternately since but one plunger of a given pair is occupied for capping purposes at a given time. in this connection it may be noted that while the plungers in a given pair of the same are actuated alternately, the plungers in the entire machine are also alternately actuated so that, referring to Fig. 1 and considering the plungers in order from the left in said figure, the first and third plungers will be in their lowf-rn'iost posh tio-ns when the second and fourth plungers are substantially in their uppermost positions. This mode of actuating the capping machine plungers is of considerable value in that it tends to distribute the load upon the machine more equally when in operation. If the two left-hand plungers were elevated simultaneously, and thereafter the two right-hand plungers were also elevated simultaneously, the thrust upon the main cam shaft would be transmitted mainly first to one bearing thereof and then to the other, whereas by operating in the manner above described, this thrust is quite evenly distributed upon both of said bearings. It also distributes the upward thrust upon the cross-head more evenly. D

The shaft 15 upon which is mounted the roll 13 which drives the belt 11, is driven through theintermediacy of an idler 107 -being mounted 'upon a short shaft 113,

driven. by a: beveled gear which constitutes an element of the gearing 63 previously re ferred to.

Provision is made in the event of a bottle becoming displaced or broken upon the ma chine, for automatically stopping the latter. To this end each quadrant is provided with an upwardly extended hub 114 which carries a cap 115, within which is disposed a coiled spring 116. The latter end of this spring is seated upon the upper edge of the hub 114 while the upper end of said spring bears against the flange 117 of a sleeve 118, the lower extremity of which is threaded into the interior of the reduced end of the hollow spindle 47.

As best shown in Figs. 5, 7 and 8, a Wedge like connection is provided between the lower extremity of a given quadrant 75 and its hollow spindle.- Said spindle is provided with this V-sha ped lug and the spring .116

normally holds these parts together. When, however, a bottlebecomes inadvertently .upset, or in any other manner becomes so positioned as to prevent the proper shifting thereof by the quadrant to the table of the plunger toward which the latter is moving at such time, the spindle 47 will continue to be positively rotated but a slippage will occur between such part and the quadrant which it carries, as a result of which action the latter will be elevated through the instrumentality of the V-shaped lug 120 compressing the spring 116 and, of course, elevating the cap which is disposed therearound. The rod 121 extends downwardly from this capt-hrou'gh the sleeve 118 and the hollow spindle, and is secured at its lower extremity to a crank arm 122 mounted upon a rock shaft 123 which extends through and is, journaled in the side frames of the machine as shown in Fig. 6. One extremity of this rock-shaft carries a. spring pulled arm 124 which extends upwardly there-from, as shownin Figs. and 6, and the upper extremity of which is connected to a link 125.-

This in turn is pivotally connected to a latch 126 whiph isadapted for engagement with an extension 127 upon a link 128. The latter extends to the lever 12%) which operates the clutch 130 upon the main driving shaft of the machine (Fig. 1). Hence the elevation of either quadrant, since both of them are connected in the manner described with the shaft 123, serves to release the clutch and to thereby deprive the machine of power.

iv e have described the preferred means of stopping the operation of the machine in the event of a bottle becoming overturned,

so as to substantially obviate breakage of bottles, and in this connection one other feature may be noted. This concerns the construction of the capping heads whereby in the event of breakage of the head of a bottle therein the fragments of glass may be readily removed. In Figs. .9 and 10 the heads 4 are each shown as provided with a casing 131 having an extension 132 to which 'is attached the lower extremity of the bottlecap chute 133 which leads downwardly thereto from the corresponding hopper 5. The casing 131 and its extension are slotted as at 134 for the reception of the suspending arm 135 of a bottle head guide 136. This latter, as shown in Fig. 10 may be square, if desired, and is provided upon the edge thereof, opposite to its arm 135, with a log 137. his lug is recessed for the recept on of the head of an eye=bolt 138 which is pivotally connected thereto, as at 139; while the casing 132 is provided with a correspondingly slotted lug 140 adapted'for the reception of the body of thispivoted eye bolt in a well known manner. The bolt 138 may be provided with a shoulder 141 to prevent a spring pressed sleeve 142 from becoming unduly displaced thereupon. Finally, the end of the bolt is threaded for engagement with a nut 143 against the under surface of which the upper extremity of a spring 144, disposed within the sleeve 142, normally presses. Normally the nut 143 is not jammed tight against the sleeve 142 but the spring 144 is merely placed sufliclently under compression by said nut to hold the bolt againstinadvertent displacement, when disposed as shown in Fig. 9. Should the bottle head break within the capping head, it is merely necessary to jerk the not 143 sidewise when the spring 144 will yield sulficien-tly to allow said bolt to be drawnput of the open slot 145 in the lug 140 whereuponthe guide 136 will drop by its own weight remaining suspended, however, from the extension 132, owing to the pivotal connection 146 which is provided between the arm 135 and the said extension. The drop-'. ping away of this guide exposes the interior of a capping head and permits the fragments of glass to fall out.

The operation of the entire mechanism is as follows: The shaft 90 is driven by means of a pulley 146 through the instrumentality of the clutch 130, the latter being maintained at such time in its operative position by reason of the engagement of the latch 126 with the projection 127 of link 128. This engagement is effected by means of the bent lever 147, shown in Fig. 6, said lever being preferably provided at opposite extremities thereof with handles 148 and being pivotally mounted upon a bracket 149, secured to one of the side frames 1. Power is transmitted from tl1e .shaft 90 through the gears .92 rand 9d toflthe main cam shaft which effects a. l iri odic elevation of alternate plungersd-Oil the manner described. Power istaken ro'm the main cam shaft at the left. hand extremity thereof, as shown in Fig. 1, by means of gears and shaft 64, whereby the belt 11 is continuously driven through its connecting train of gears; while correspondingly, through its connection with the crank shaft 60, driven by gears 63, the rack 54 is reciprocated, which in turn imparts an oscillatory motion to the quad rants through the intermediacy of the gears 46, 51 and associated parts. The continuous driving of the spindles upon which are mounted said quadrants efiects the oscillation of the levers 36 by means of the crank arms 45, links 43 and cross 'rod 41. The links 43, it may be here noted, are provided with suitable means. 150' for adjusting the lengths thereof, said means in the present instance being turn buckles; The oscillation of the levers 36 effects the reciprocation of the slides 34: and their pusher fingers 32. Finally, the shaft 95, carrying the cams 99, is rotarily driven by the meshed gears 97, 98, the latter upon the shaft 90 and the rotation of said cams effects reciprocation of the respective connectedlinks 85-87, by means of the levers 88. Bottles are delivered toward the machine through the channel 26 and stagger themselves in the channel-way 25 in the manner described, being thereafter advanced by the belt 11 toward the stem 27. The forward end or edge of this part effects an alternate distribution of the advancing 'bottles first into one arm and then into the the bottles" 24 which are shown as in the vact of passing the gates 76.

p From these points said bottles are shifted a shortdistance farther by the fingers 32 toward'the line of plungers, whereupon they are engaged. by the respective quadrants. The outer edges of the quadrants, intermediate 1 the arcuate edges 81, are substantially eoncentric with the axes of rotation of the quadrants, so that even if by chance a gate 76 should not be effectively in position to withstand the advance of a bottle toward a given quadrant, this outer quadrant edge would merely slip over the surface of the bottle preventing it from emerging farther past the gate until the quadrant had swung completely aside. Should the bottles which are being advanced become unduly crowded prior to or immediately after encountering the stem 27 the yielding guides 28 will be pressed outward toward the respective sides of the machine affording more room for the bottles; but the springs 30 will exercise a tendency to return these yielding guides to their normal positions, so that immediately after the congestion becomes abated they will resume the position in which they are shown in Fig. 3.

After the fingers 32 have shoved the bottles 24 into the paths of the respective qua drants, said fingers are withdrawn toward. the front of the machine and snapped past the bottles immediately to the rear, preparatory to pushing these bottles in their turn."

around toward the respective plungers at the instant when said plungers are in their. lowermost positions; and of course said bottles are alternately seated upon the respective plungers of a given pair of the same; a pair of bottles being simultaneously seated, one upon, let us say, the right hand plunger of one pair of the latter, and the other bottle of said pair upon the corresponding plunger in the other pair of the same. The centering devices comprising the fingers 83 and 84 and the flat link 85 in each case accurately locate the bottle upon the table of a plunger, whereupon the quadrant which has so seated the bottle swings out of the way and the plunger is then elevated by its cam; driving the bottle up toward the corresponding capping head. Previous to this elevation of a given plunger, a. bottle cap has been seated in the capping head there-above. having been delivered thereto from the corresponding hopper 5; and the bottle is thereupon sealed by being driven together with its cap up into the capping head in a known manner. \Vhile being so sealed however the corresponding connected links 85-87 have been moving forwardly toward the front of the machine until the finger 102 carried by the link 87 thereof has been wiped past the bottle; when, as soon as the plunger, upon the table of which said bottle is seated, has descended to its lowermost position, the. said finger shifts the bottle toward the rear of the table; the centering finger 84 yielding topermit of this action. Should the belt 11 become stretched, as is apt to be.the case after continued use for an extended period, itv may be readily given the desired tension by oscillating the handle 20 in the manner de;

scribed. Should a bottle become so disposed as to render impossible its proper delivery to its plunger by the corresponding quadrant, the said quadrant will yield and in so,-

doiug will be elevated in the manner described, which rocks the shaft 123 and thereby trips the latch 126. Thereupon, the spring 150, one end of which is attached to the lever 147 and the other end of which is connected to a rod 151 attached to the lefthand frame 1, draws the lever 147 to its clutch releasing position, and stops the machine. If the breakage of a bottle has been such as to leave fragments'thereof in one of the capping heads, such fragments may be readily removed in the manner described. Finally, means are provided for accommodating the feedin and centering mechanism may be properly supported when being advanced through said arms. Gorrespondingly the quadrants may be rovided with shoes 155, secured thereto, if desired, by screws 156; and the recesses 81' in the sides of these shoes are adapted to fit these smaller bottles, so that the latter may be properly shifted onto the plungers despite their reduced size. To insure the centering of these bottles with respect to the capping heads, liners 156, 157 may be secured to the bottle engaging faces of the centering elements or fingers 83, 84, respectively, while the sliding guides or flat links 85 are displaced later-e ally toward the axes of the respective adjacent plungers by transposing a cap 105; having a downwardly directed flange 158 which is received into the groove 10a of each block 105, from one side of said block to the other. Thus in Fig. 3, considering the upper guide block 105, it will be noted that the cap 105' thereof, held in place by a securing bolt 159, is on the side toward the plungers. the link being set for, let us say, quarts while in Fig. 4, the cap 105 is on the other side and is held in place by the other securing bolt. 159' of the slotted block. If this were the only change efi'ecte'd in so far as a link 85 was concerned, said link would be askew, so that it is necessary to correspondingly displace the pivoted end thereof. This is readily accomplished by shifting a washer 160fr0m one side of the extremity of the lever 88 to the other, as shown in Figs. 3 and 1. Thus both members 85 and 87 are laterally displaced with respect to the corresponding plunger in parallelism with their former positions. One other point in thir; connection remains to be considered, namely, the alt-elation inthe path of travel of the bottle engaging end of the shifting fingers 32. One mode of accomplishing this is to swivel said fingers around slightly so that they are no longer disposed at the same angle with respect to their slides 34. To this end a pad 161 may be fastened on the side. of a. given finger 32 which normally engages the stop 1G2 ca'rried by the arm of the corresponding slide, so that this pad is interposed between said stop and the finger. This manitains the finger end somewhat nearer the quadrant axis and hence adapts it to properly position a smaller diametered bottle in the path of said quadrant.

It willhence be seen that we have provided a mechanism, all parts of which are adapted to efiiciently co-act, to the end that a constant stream of bottles of any determined size may be delivered to the plungers of said machine preparatory to capping said bottles,while thereafter the capped bottles are displaced from the 'plungers to a position where they may be conveniently removed from the mechanism.

In practice this machine has given extraordinarily good results, the breakage of bottles being practically entirely eliminated, while the mechanism has a capacity for capping as high as l80 or more filldbottles per minute.

Having described our invention, we claim 1' 1. In combination with a bottle capping machine, means for delivering filled bottles to the cap applying parts thereof while maintaining said bottles in a substantially upright position, and co-acting means for removing said bottles from said cap applying parts, after thecaps have been applied to said bottles, each of said means comprising a movable yielding finger adapted for engagement with a bottle whereby to displace the same, said finger of said first mentioned means being movable toward and from one of said cap applying parts in a path located to one side of the-latter, and said-finger of said second mentioned means being movable. toward and from the same cap applying part in a path located upon another side of said part, each of said fingers being adapted to slip past a bottle when in engagement therewith when moving in a direction opposite to the course of travel of bottlesthrough said machine, and means for actuating said first and second mentioned means in timed relationship to each other.

2. In combination with a bottle cappiugmachine,having cap applying parts and actuating mechanism therefor including a clutch,

mechanism for feeding filled bottles in a substantially. uprightposition to said cap applying parts and connections between a part of said feeding mechanism and said clutch, said connections operable by a bottle improperly positioned in said feeding mechanism.

3. In combination with a power driven bottling appliance having a bottle engaging gait and actuating mechanism therefor, means for successively feeding bottles to said part, including a bottle shifting device and a guide co-acting therewith, and auto matic means for stoppihgsaid actuating mechanism when a bottle becomes improperly positioned with'respect to said shifting device and guide.

4. In combination with a bottle capping machine having a plunger and a capping head in line with said plunger, means for centering bottles on said plunger with respect to said head, said means comprising a structure adapted 'for engagement with portions of the side Walls of a bottle, a eoacting member adapted for engagement with a p0rtion of said bottle substantially opposite to those engaged by said structure, said member being laterally movable with respect to said plunger, means for supporting said member in part only upon said plunger, and means for moving said member to and fro.

5. In combination with a bottle capping machine having a plunger and a capping head in line with said plunger, means for centering bottles on said plunger withrespect to said head, said means comprising a structure adapted for engagement with portions of the side walls of a bottle, said structure being mounted upon said plunger, a co-acting member adapted for engagement with a portion of said bottle substantially opposite to those engaged by said structure, said member being laterally movable with respect to said plunger, means for supporting said member in part only upon said plunger, and means for moving said member to and fro.

6. The combination of a bottling appli ance having a plunger, with feeding mechanism for moving bottles into alinement with and away from said plunger, said mechanism comprising an element mounted to ride back and forth over a part of said plunger while the latter is in motion, said element having means for engaging the side of a bottle whereby to shift said bottle with respect to said plunger.

7. The combination of a bottling appliance having a plunger, with. feeding mechanism for moving bottles into alinement with and'away from said plunger, said mecha nism comprising an element carried in part I at least by said plunger and also movable with respect thereto, means, carried by said l element, for engaging bottles, and means normally in engagement with said element for elfecting lateral movement thereof in accordance with a movement of said plunger.

8. The combination of a bottling appliance having a plunger, with feeding mechanism for moving bottles into alinemcnt with and away from said plunger, said mechanism comprising a reciprocably mounted element carried in part at least by said plunger and also movable with respect thereto, means, carried by said element, for engaging bottles, and means normally in engagement with said element for effecting lateral movement thereof in accordance with a movement of said plunger.

9. The combination of a bottling appliance having a plunger, with feeding mechanism for moving bottles into alinement with and away from said plunger, said mechanism con'iprising an element carried in part at least by said plunger and also movable with respect thereto, means, carried by said element, for engaging. bottles, and means normally in engagement with said element for effecting lateral movement thereof inaccordance with a movement of said plunger.

10. The combination of abottling appliance having a plunger adapted to support a bottle, with means for removing said bottle from said plunger, said means including a member mounted for lateral movement with respect. to said plunger and adapted to be supported at least in part thereby when said plunger is raised, means carried by said member for engaging said bottle, and mechanism for reciprocating'said member.

11. The coi'nbination of a bottling appli ance having a pair of plungers and means for elevating said plungers alternately, with a bottle feeding mechanism comprising an oscillating member adapted to shift bottles toward said plungers alternately, a stem, said member being yieldingly mounted on said stem for movement axially thereof,

means for rocking said stem about its axis,

and means whereby said member is displaced longitudinally of said stem when oscillatory movement of said member is resisted.

12. The combination of a bottling appliance having a pair of plungers and means for elevating said plungers alternately, with a bottle feeding mechanism corn risin' an oscillating member adapted to shift bottles toward said plunger-s alternately, a stem, said member being yieldingly mounted on said stem for movement axially thereof,

means for rocking said stem about its axis and driving connections between said stem and said member, including means whereby said member is displaced longitudinally of said stem when oscillatory movement of said member is resisted.

13. The combination of a bottling appliance having a pair of plungers and means for elevating said plungers alternately, with a bottle feeding mechanism comprising an oscillating member adapted to shift bottles toward said plungers alternately, a stem, said member being yieldingly mounted on said stem for movement axially thereof, means for rocking said stem about its axis, and wedge acting means whereby said member is displaced longitudinally of said stem when oscillatory movement of said member is resisted.

'14. In bottle handling machinery, the

combination of a plunger, a pusher finger for shifting bottles with respect to said plunger, means for moving said finger through a determined path, said finger being normally disposed at an angle to said path, and means for adjusting said finger to accommodate bottles of different sizes,

said means comprising a device for changing the normal angular disposition of said finger with respect to said path.

15. In bottle capping machinery, the combination of a capping head and a plunger, bottle centering parts mounted on the latter, a member mounted for movement to and fro,

said member adapted to co-act with said parts for centering bottles on said plunger with respect to said head, means for moving said member to and fro, and means for adjusting said member and parts to fit bottles of different sizes.

16. In combination with a power drivennatures, in the presence of two witnesses.

JOSEPH V. IRENIUS. CLAYTON B. WEAVER.

Witnesses as to the signature of J oseph' V. Irenius:

MARTIN MANN, LELA GEIGER.

Witnesses as to the signature of Clayton B. Weaver:

EDWARD Gr. JOHNS, RICHARD WILLIAMS. 

